Previews

Damnation

The popular UT2004 mod is back as a full-fledged shooter that blends steampunk with the Wild West.

Spiffy:

Alternate-history technology and plenty of anti-establishment attitude make this exciting for steampunk fans.

Iffy:

Platforming elements need to work smoothly enough that they don't detract from the shooting gameplay.

Remember Half-Life: Counter-Strike? Team Fortress? Some of the biggest games start off as fan-created mod projects, and Damnation has a decent shot at being the next big hit. Damnation's development began several years ago as a UT2004 mod that introduced adventure game-styled platforming elements and presented this new hybrid gameplay in a slick steampunk-influenced setting. Years later, this mod has been turned into a full commercial project slated for release on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.

Damnation's aesthetics set it apart from any other shooter you may have played, taking a steampunk approach that allows the game to include the sort of magical or science-fiction gameplay functionality you'd expect from a game in those genres without being limited to depicting the world within those trappings. This way, the characters in Damnation can use things like triple-barreled shotguns without necessarily having to wear a space suit. After all, the protagonist's cowboy hat is far more stylish.

The idea behind Damnation is to create an American epic, like a counterpart to "The Lord of the Rings." Damnation sets out to accomplish this by utilizing powerful themes from America's past, meshing together imagery reminiscent of wartime propaganda posters with the timeless look of the Wild West. This is a world where nine-foot robot soldiers named Auto-Men patrol the streets of this stark, totalitarian state, and it's up to one bad-ass cowboy with steam-powered weaponry to save what's left of the United States.

What sets Damnation apart from most other shooters (except perhaps Capcom's Dark Void, which seems cut from the same cloth) is its focus on verticality. While most shooter levels sprawl on the horizontal plane, Damnation's stages will also zoom upwards, offering thousands of feet of vertical height to explore. This is intended to truly open up the exploration experience, making traversing any given level a far richer experience than that found in your typical grounded shooter.

Damnation also makes use of a preparation system that makes it so you never have to worry about lining up exactly with a ledge or jumping blindly due to a bad camera angle, taking the tedium out of the leaping and climbing.